It is one of the oldest among the ancient musicians, but since a new generation of young musicians has emerged who without any complex approach the polyphonies of the Iberian Renaissance, it seems very fresh. And they do it by relativizing the weight of the historicism of the last half century: that how the instruments sounded, how that music was made, where it was performed. The individual emotions that it creates in each performer is a recipe with which the best concerts are cooked.
Maestro Marc DÃaz, director of the Cor Cererols, born in 1993, fell in love with this music when he sang it every day in his Escolania de Montserrat years. “I remember when I was ten years old having the feeling that there were many voices: everyone was at the same time making different melodies. Because one of the things about polyphony, both Renaissance and Baroque, is that each voice has its independent melodic sense,†he says. How could so many melodies sound good at the same time, if a chord is optimal to the ear with only three notes?
This apparently simple music, without extreme ranges, modulations or very difficult melismas is, however, technically more complex for an amateur choir than a Mozart Requiem, points out Josep LluÃs Biosca. “It requires a tuning, a concentration, a linear singing, still transparent and the density of the piece… In other words, a practice and grammar that many young people with training do not have, since it is not a strictly vocal question but one of understandingâ€, notes the choir director Francesc Valls.
Still, there are exceptions. CantorÃa, the a cappella group that emerged from Esmuc, shocked, without going any further, the audience at the Carme church this Easter in Peralada with the Oficio de Tinieblas by Tomás Luis de Victoria. His vocal sound is an example of how many groups try to bet on a personal sensitivity. For its director, Jorge Losana (Murcia, 1986), the phase of pursuing the supposedly original sound has been overcome. Now it’s about expressing yourself in a way that artistically connects with the public, with the present. “I am no longer looking for the truth, this is past. I do not pretend to say how Victoria was interpreted in his time. As the teacher and musicologist Peter Phillips, founder of The Tallis Scholars, says: he makes Tallis as he likes. And what I want is a way of expressing myself that the public likesâ€.
All of this means removing the last corset from a spectacular heritage that now has good departments in conservatories. And that it penetrates a more mainstream audience of stage shows. Without going any further, the Grec festival announces its line-up tomorrow, with the celebrated Carnación, the piece with which bailaora RocÃo Molina rocked the Venice Biennale last year together with Niño de Elche, and which in Barcelona will feature the Coral Cà rmina singing the music of Francisco Guerrero (Seville, 1528-1599). The Spanish Golden Age, present on the stage of the Teatre Grec. An experience that will not fall on deaf ears.
“I warned a friend who wanted to come to Victoria’s that this was not Vivaldi. It is something to meditate on and be with yourself more than a concert in which things happen -explains Losana-. And her response was: ‘well, I also want that in my life’ â€.
Once it has been assimilated that the baroque is the rock of the 17th and 18th centuries, the journey to undertake now goes further back… And the vitality, richness and sweet moment that the Catalan choral world lives with these medieval and Renaissance pearls is reflected in the Llums d’Antiga festival that begins today (see box). In suitable spaces of Barcelona’s architectural heritage, L’Auditori concentrates three requiems: that of Guerrero, that of his predecessor Cristóbal de Morales and that of the king of polyphony that was Victoria. This was written in 1603 – in Venice Monteverdi was preparing L’Orfeo – for the funeral of Maria de Austria, being chaplain to Felipe II at the Descalzas Reales in Madrid.
They are performed by referential choirs, people trained in the country who have gone abroad and fortunately have returned: Francesc Valls, Cererols, CantorÃa and Ensemble O Vos Omnes, whose 15th-century Lamentatio program was recorded by L’Auditori in Montblanc in 3D sound: so enveloping the acoustic sensation of the historic ship. “Whoever has the technology at home will be able to enjoy it, but it is something from the future that we will also offer in an installation at the Museu de la Músicaâ€, said the director of the room, Robert Brufau.
But, what is the hook of the music of the renaissance whose aesthetics creates, according to Brufau, certain fanaticisms and followers like the one professed to Jordi Savall?
“There are many people who like it,†says Biosca. And precisely the most listened to contemporary is Arvo Pärt, who is similar to him: spiritual music apparently simple, understandable… but being a minorityâ€.
“It’s associated with a single state of mind: peace, transcendence… But that’s only part of it, because like all music today, this can be euphoric and give you an adrenaline rush. They can all stir with the elements of their timeâ€, affirms DÃaz. The person in charge of directing Guerrero’s requiem notes that although it is located in the time between Morales’s and Victoria’s, it seems even later, since “Guerrero writes songs in Spanish that are more melodic and singable, and his requiem is more like that melodic and contrapuntal style, not as homophonic as that of Morales and Victoria. And brighter.”
Regarding the original sound and the originality with which to approach these pieces, Biosca is clear about it: “I try to flee from all originality, it often goes against art; Victoria’s requiem, like so many other great works, already contains everything, it does not need contributions. And original sound? at that time it was sung by children, not women. And there were no countertenors like now. You can try to imitate them up to a certain point, looking for low-vibration voices that can sing with the organ… but we don’t know how they did it. And I don’t think any composer expects to sound accurate after centuries.”
